Machine-Type Communication (MTC) is a promising and emerging technology that may enable a ubiquitous computing environment towards the concept of the “Internet of Things” (IoT). These MTC devices may require little to no human interaction and may be able to communicate captured data over wireless networks. Potential MTC based applications and services include smart metering, healthcare monitoring, remote security surveillance, intelligent transportation monitoring systems, supply chain monitoring, and/or the like. Some projections indicate that the number of deployed MTC devices may exceed one billion in the near future. However, network resources of existing mobile broadband networks may be burdened by the numerous data transmissions being communicated by the numerous MTC devices in addition to the numerous data transmissions being communicated by human operated mobile communication devices, such as smartphones and tablet personal computers. Furthermore, power consumption and computational resources may be taxed as human operated mobile communication devices and MTC devices compete for a limited amount of bandwidth for communicating data.
Most existing mobile broadband networks were designed to optimize performance mainly for mobile communication devices that are operated by humans. Therefore, the existing mobile broadband networks are typically not designed to meet the MTC related requirements. Network designs that contemplate the deployment of MTC devices are being studied by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Radio Access Network (RAN) working groups (WGs) for specification support in Release-13 LTE specifications, wherein the primary objective is to focus on lowering device costs, enhancing coverage, and reducing power consumption.
To further reduce costs and power consumption, it has been suggested to reduce the transmission bandwidth for MTC devices to 1.4 megahertz (MHz), which is the minimum bandwidth of most existing LTE networks. In this case, the transmission bandwidth for both control and data channels can be reduced to 1.4 MHz. In general, it is envisioned that a relatively large number of MTC devices will be deployed for specific services within a single cell coverage area being serviced by a single base station or evolved NodeB (eNB). When a relatively large number of MTC devices within the single cell coverage area attempt to access and communicate with the network, multiple MTC regions within the 1.4 MHz bandwidth can be allocated by the eNB. Therefore, new mechanisms may be required to allocate multiple MTC regions within the 1.4 MHz bandwidth and/or schedule multiple MTC transmissions within the 1.4 MHz bandwidth.